A bold initiative to establish an online box office system and associated audience development agency across the whole of Northern Ireland is being developed and supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI). £650,000 has been ring-fenced for the provision of state-of-the-art computer hardware and software for venues and for three year running costs for the new agency.
The project is one of the most sophisticated integrated marketing initiatives ever to be attempted in the UK. Integration of the inventory of tickets from the participating venues will be achieved at web level by linking them to an Internet portal, which will provide public access to all the tickets on sale. The proposed systems will enable even small arts organisations and festivals to sell their tickets online and Tourist Information Centres and other outlets will be in a position to sell tickets for a wide range of events.
The proposed audience development agency, which is likely to be part-funded by subscriptions from participating arts organisations, will manage the ticket inventory and the portal website. It will provide on-going maintenance and support for the ticketing function and manage the installation of browser-based front-end outlets. The agency will also extract market intelligence from the system to provide baseline data and trends relating to Northern Ireland?s arts audiences. This will be available to ACNI and government as well as participating venues, for whom venue-specific marketing information will be generated and benchmarked against the full data set, including postcode analysis, frequency of attendance and audience profiles. The data will also enable collaborative marketing and audience development projects to be developed. On-going marketing and box office training will be made available to help arts organisations develop an appropriate marketing and sales culture, and mailing, distribution, advice and networking services will also be launched.
A steering group representing the interests of arts venues, tourism, festivals, local authorities, community arts organisations, the voluntary and amateur sector and ACNI has been formed to carry the project forward and consultants have been appointed to carry out an economic appraisal and develop a detailed business plan. The initiative is moving forward on an action-research basis, with progress in the venture only being approved on satisfactory completion of each step. All arts organisations in Northern Ireland will have a chance to have their say. If the appraisal confirms the viability of the proposals, ticketing system suppliers will be appointed in October. Moves to attract participating members to the agency and recruit its initial staff will follow. A project Reference Group which includes chief executives, directors of organisations and personnel involved in arts marketing and ticketing has been formed. To receive updates as the project develops, email contact details to
audiencedevelopmentagency@artscouncil-ni.org